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The err is human. To admit it is divine.
The best leaders view mistakes as learning opportunities. When my friend Ann took over as CEO, the company was in danger of going out of business. After decades of solid performance the company...
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Get ahead of the rumors by providing the facts
Without the facts, they’ll make something up. A few months ago, I saw what happened when the employees in a large contact center believed a false rumor. The company is a large outsourcer that takes...
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Agent survey reveals what they want from a supervisor
Be there. As a supervisor you juggle multiple priorities. Your days fly by. With the endless stream of personnel issues, reports to write, unhappy customers to deal with, and multiple meetings to go...
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Want to be a “love worthy” boss? Here’s how.
Ordinary jobs can be turned into extraordinary jobs by a supervisor. “Making small changes in our daily activities can make a job more rewarding and engaging, but people who love their jobs also have...
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9 Tips for Creating an Awesome Peer Coaching Program
Short staffed? Consider Peer Coaches. If you are like many contact center leaders I know, you are having to “do more with less” these days. One way to augment your coaching efforts is create a team...
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Top 10 Truths & Lessons Learned about living a happy life.
Enjoy the ride! Every year on my birthday I stop to consider the life lessons I’ve learned thus far. Here are my top 10. Barbara’s Top 10 Truths About Life You will always have problems. It’s crazy to...
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Keep calm and reduce handle times
How to reduce handle time by calming angry customers. A slight reduction in average call handling times can have a big impact on your company’s bottom line. A case in point: one of my clients recently...
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The problem with “no problem.”
Customer perception is what drives customer satisfaction survey scores. The wrong word choice can leave a negative impression and have unintended consequences. Here are two examples of what happened...
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Workplace friendships contribute to job satisfaction & enhance performance.
It pays to encourage workplace friendships. Strong workplace friendships are a predictor of performance. That’s why Gallup includes the question, “Do you have a friend at work?” in their employee...
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7 Tips for Reducing Irksome Emails
There has to be a better way. I’ve been reading up on what I can do to manage the increasing number of unnecessary, time-sucking emails that arrive every day. Most experts on the subject agree the...
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Want confident, competent employees? Ask empowering questions.
Get better results by asking instead of telling Supervisors are often frustrated when, despite their best efforts, new agents continue to depend on them for answers and escalate calls they could...
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Supervision is a contact sport.
You must be present to win. With the advent of high tech solutions for managing contact centers many contact centers have lost sight of the role of the supervisor. Instead of being out on the floor...
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Do you have a team or just a bunch of boxes on an org chart? You decide.
Great team meetings are the secret sauce to achieving employee engagement. I believe so strongly in the importance of regular team meetings, I include a question about meeting frequency in my...
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Count your blessings.
Gratitude. It’s good for you. If you think counting your blessings isn’t that important, consider the study that found that people who kept a journal where they wrote down the things they were...
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Life Coach – Zappos World’s Greatest Job Perk
Company-provided life coach: a job perk whose time has come. When the supervisors and managers in my Intentional Coaching Boot Camps return from the tour of Zappos’ contact center in Las Vegas we...
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Top 7 Resolutions for Enlightened Leaders
Want an amazing 2014? Resolve to get out or your own way. 1. Stop making yourself crazy. Control what you can and let the rest go. You will be much happier — and a lot less stressed....
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Question authority. Prevent Group Think
If you don’t have a naysayer on your team it’s time to find one. Do have one member of your team who refuses to go along with the rest? While your natural inclination may be to stifle him or her the...
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Quiet Rooms are becoming more popular
The time has come for all good managers to come to the aid of their highly-stressed employees. More and more contact centers are providing a quiet room for their agents. If you don’t already have a...
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Toxic Talk — Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?
Words to Live By As a consultant who works with contact centers on improving their workplace cultures, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend: toxic talk in the form of harmful gossip, dissing customers and...
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Mondays with a Mac, a cat and cup of coffee
Celebrating my 200th Monday Aha! Dearest Readers, If you are one of the 2800+ subscribers to my Monday Aha! I’d like to thank you for your loyalty. It’s hard to believe that what started out 4 years...
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